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Would travelers still be wise to use travel agents for Myanmar?

Would travelers still be wise to use travel agents for Myanmar?

Old Mar 29th, 2017, 11:21 AM
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rje
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Would travelers still be wise to use travel agents for Myanmar?

I know in the past this was the case, but now it seems to be easier to book things from outside Myanmar.

This would be our first trip there, and I'm noticing that all the hotels I'm interested in can easily be booked by me on the internet. Same with flights in and out of Myanmar. And the same with a boat we want to take to get from Mandalay to Bagan.

We'd also need 1 internal flight. I've heard that schedules can change, so maybe that is something best left to an agency, or can I do that, too?

And can't we find transport to the temples at Bagan when we get there?

And can't we find boats for Lake Inle the same way?

And can't we just hire taxis in Mandalay and Yangon, as we know what we want to see there?

Am I being foolish if we go ahead and just book all this ourselves?
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 11:40 AM
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You can do almost everything yourselves online these days. Things have changed a lot in Burma!

I found that my agent in Burma can get some hotels for less than I can. And they can easily arrange a car and driver for a side trip. Also, for Internal flights the agency will notify you if there are time changes in your flight.

I never used an agent to book our boat at Inle or transport in Bagan (I am partial to the horsecars there). If you want to go to Kakku on your way to your lodgings at Inle, having an agent book you a car and driver is the way to go. There is little competition at the HeHo airport, so prearranging that makes sense. There are reports of price gouging at the HeHo airport.

So I would say do what you are comfortable with.
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 12:46 PM
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We were in Myanmar in Jan. and Feb. for a three week plus trip. I too had planned to organize this trip the way I have always organized the rest of our travels--by myself using the online resources. That was my plan. It might give you some insights on why we finally ended up using an agency to book our travels within Myanmar if you read this thread I wrote while trying to book places.

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...rom-the-us.cfm

Ultimately, we ended up having the agency book all hotels except one, book our three internal flights, arrange for a guide to go with us to Golden Rock (a guide is highly recommended for this experience, and I am speaking as one who very rarely uses guides), a 1/2 day trekking guide in Kalaw, a driver for our day trips within Mandalay, a driver to and from Golden Rock, a driver from Bagan to Kalaw and on to Inle Lake, and our boat trip from Mandalay to Bagan.

On our own we arranged for one hotel, all hotel/airport transfers, a buggy driver and motorbike rentals in Bagan, the boat driver to and from our lodging at the next lake down from Inle Lake, a different day tour of Inle Lake, taxis in other towns etc.

As to pricing, I really don't know how much it cost us over and above what it would have cost us to do it on our own, but I don't think it could have been more than a couple hundred dollars. A couple hotels I was able to do direct comparisons on--one was more than I would have paid and one was less. I suspect that most people who travel in Myanmar still use an agency because many times we were asked, "what is your agency?" when we arrived at a place.

As people who normally never use agencies, I have to say that it was nice to have to do nothing more many days than just show up because all arrangements were taken care of. OTOH, I think it would have been quite easy to just use our hotels to arrange onward transportation and guides once we arrived.

As one who really likes flexibility, we had two places where we would have liked an additional day. Whether it would have been easier to flex if we were making all of the arrangements on our own, I am not sure about since in many ways hotels are at capacity in Myanmar.
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 02:26 PM
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Kathie,
I remember you worked with Santa Maria and I'd like to write them. Is there anyone there in particular you'd recommend I contact, and if so, can you share their email with me?

julies,
Yikes, I never would have thought it would have been so hard to use your credit cards from the US! That does give me pause. Did you book the Inle Sanctuary yourself? We're seriously considering it.
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 02:40 PM
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Be aware that while taxis are plentiful in Yangon, they're scarce in Mandalay. Having said that, your hotel should be able to find a car and driver to get you around.

I now have a contact at UA tours in Yangon who books internal airfares for me. They are quite responsive by email. I've mostly just walked into a travel agent shopfront to arrange onward travel, granted I had the luxury of plenty of time.

There's a couple of trip reports I've written with names of local guides I've used. It's easy to organise things on the ground. Highly recommend Pupu in Inle Lake. She will organise a car and driver or boat and driver as the case may be.
U Naing in Mandalay had great English although you'd probably prefer a vehicle more comfy than his flat bed truck.

Happy planning, when are you going ?
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 03:35 PM
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Inle Sanctuary was our favorite place in our entire Myanmar trip. Book it! Don't give it a second thought! As far as booking there we had Santa Maria do it. I had been in direct contact with the place prior to working with Santa Maria and could probably have done it myself but just decided to have SM do it all for us. I did work directly with Inle Sanctuary to arrange our boat transfers though. The price they quoted was cheaper than Santa Maria could have arranged for us.

The one hotel Santa Maria did not book for us was the Mandalay City Hotel in Mandalay. I had booked that online through booking.com when I saw that the small suite I wanted had become available for our dates; I snapped it up. Then, we found out we couldn't get any credit card to go through for payment, and it was past the time when I could cancel. I finally had to contact their corporate offices who were kind enough to hold the room for me without any payment at all, so we just paid when we arrived.

We were in a time crunch when I was trying to arrange everything and that is why I finally threw up my hands. Perhaps your cards will work online. After all of our phone calls to banks we finally did figure out one that would work from home for online transactions. If we had had more time, I could probably have put it together using exclusively that one card. It was nice though to just have Santa Maria put the logistics together as far as best sequence for what we wanted to do. I told them where we wanted to stay rather than just relying on their contracts, so perhaps we could have gotten better pricing if we just stuck with the hotels they have contracts with.

As I recall, the only problem we had while in Myanmar was when we were trying to book an ongoing flight out of Myanmar on Air Asia. We tried and tried and couldn't get it to work. I'd get to the part where I needed to put in credit card info and would get a "forbidden" message. We finally were able to book that flight when we downloaded their app and did it on our phone.
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 04:37 PM
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sartoric,
We're going in mid-February of next year, but that is after spending time in India in January. I booked a non-stop flight from Varanasi to Bangkok, and from there to Mandalay, and I'm trying to work out the rest of Myanmar now. I just have to end up in Yangon at the end, so that we can fly home from there.

Interesting about using an agency just to book the flights. The internal flights are the part I'm worried about getting, and I've heard stories about last-minute cancellations and a mad scramble to re-book. An agent could hopefully be a big help in such cases? So is it possible to share the email for your contact at UA, or is that not done on Fodors?

Kathie,
But just when I thought I had a workable itinerary through Myanmar, I made the mistake of looking at your trip report again and suddenly Mrauk U is becoming really hard to resist. I'm trying to figure out how much is too much for just one trip! Even though the boat trip to Mrauk U sounds like a plus, I may just be committing us to too many flights on one trip! As it was, I had worked to plot a route that only had 1 internal flight in Myanmar, because of sevral India flights...

Does anyone know if there are currently safety issues in that region?

julies,
I had actually already emailed Inle Sanctuary this morning to see about availability. So I do think we're going to do it, and thanks for telling us about it! Is the landscape there as beautiful as up in the Inle Lake area nearer to Nyaungshwe?
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 04:42 PM
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rje, Just write to Santa Maria. I've been to Burma 3 times and used them each time. I just write to [email protected] And usually Din or Zaw replies.

Satoric's response reminded me that we had them get a car and driver for us In Mandalay and I even had them arrange an airport transfer for us in Mandalay.
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 06:52 PM
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Rje, my contact has moved within the company to being an outbound guide, she loves to travel, so it's perfect for her. I now use Facebook to stay in touch with her.

If I wanted to book a domestic flight I would use their generic inbox. It's [email protected]

I've taken a fair few domestic flights over my four trips to Myanmar, the planes have all been newish, although mostly turbo props. Golden Myanmar Airlines has a jet, and I was able to book that flight myself online. There've been no incidents recently, (past four years or so), of course that is no indication of safety, could just be luck.
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 08:29 AM
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How much time do you have in Myanmar? Getting to/from Mrauk U is pretty time consuming. It was a fabulous experience. I'd consult with Santa Maria about whether it is advisable to go. It's always on and off advisable/inadvisable to go there.
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 11:23 AM
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We though about going when we were there this winter, but Mrauk U was a no-go then. In your shoes, planning and booking nearly a year in advance, I don't know if I would include it in an ironclad itinerary because lots of things could change politically in that amount of time.
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 11:57 AM
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sartoric,
you remind me of why I'm squeamish about flying in Myanmar! But even on dicey airlines, I know the odds of any problem are still very small (typed with fingers crossed).

Kathie,
Here's our itinerary as of now (it can still be changed).

• Mandalay (arriving on short morning flight from Bangkok) - 2 nights
• Pandaw overnight cruise to Bagan (arrives at 10am the next day)
• Bagan - 3 nights
• Inle Lake - 4 nights

Then, if we we went to Mrauk U, it would be here, flying to Sittwe, and probably staying overnight, then taking a boat to Mrauk U the next morning, then staying for 3 nights.

•And then, Yangon for 2 nights, before flying home.

I need to keep in mind this is would be coming after nearly a month in India, with a couple of days inbetween just resting in Bangkok! I don't want to do so much that amazing places start to lose their impact, but I also only have so many opportunities to go so far.

But Mrauk U seems to be very special, doesn't it?

julies,
But to your point about not knowing if it will be safe in a year, I will have to commit very soon, because if we are going to Mrauk U, I'd need to add days to the trip, and I need to get the return flights in just a few days (award flight).

Hmmm, what to do...
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 12:03 PM
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Whoops, I left out 2 nights from the itinerary.

We're driving from Bagan to Kalaw and staying there for 2 nights in a guesthouse.

From Kalaw it is a 1 1.2 hour drive or a longer slow train to Inle.
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 12:08 PM
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I'd say that if you really want to go to Mrauk U, book it. If it doesn't work out, you can cancel the reservations for that part of the trip and substitute something else for that time. When we went to Mrauk U, we didn't know if we could get there when we booked, but it all worked out. I had some ideas for what we might do instead if it didn't work out.

What time of year are you going?
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 12:28 PM
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Regarding Mrauk U:
I did just look at travel.state.gov and there are no official warnings for any part of Myanmar. Where else would anyone suggest l look?

Kathie,
We arrive in mid-February. I guess we need to bring some warm clothes for mornings at Inle Lake, and then warmer elsewhere?

I guess I'd better make sure any reservations for Mrauk U can be cancelled without penalty. I've never done it before, but I'm starting to think travel insurance might be warranted for this trip...
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 12:48 PM
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"I need to keep in mind this is would be coming after nearly a month in India, with a couple of days in between just resting in Bangkok! I don't want to do so much that amazing places start to lose their impact, but I also only have so many opportunities to go so far."

You are going to be absolutely exhausted with this schedule after a month in India. Neihter India or Myanmar is a sit-around-in-the-cafe-relaxing -with-a-glass-of-wine and watch the world go by type of place. Trust me. I know. We are old hands at India (four months in total there).

It sounds as though your trip is going to be about six weeks in total. The past four years we have done six week trips in Asia. I never have the second half of the trip completely booked (and leave it nearly open-ended) because we never know in advance how tired we will be of a certain type of activity or place.

I know we are all different, but IMO it is foolish to have yourself locked in to a non-stop sightseeing type trip for six weeks. This is not the same as a two week trip where one feels like maximizing sight-seeing non-stop. When traveling for this amount of time, you will definitely need some down time.

I am going to try to put a trip report together soon but haven't gotten around to it yet. FWIW, here was our Myanmar itinerary:

2 nights Yangon
1 night Golden Rock (another super favorite)
1 night Yangon
flight to Mandalay
3 nights Mandalay
day boat trip to Bagan (for us this one day trip was sufficient)
4 nights Bagan
2 nights Kalaw
3 nights--Inle Sanctuary (would have liked one more night)
2 nights--Nyaung Shwe
flight to Ngapali
3 nights--Ngapali (would have liked ine more night)
flight to Yangon
flight out of Myanmar

We are not typically beach people, and I vacillated for a long time about adding in Ngapali, but by this time in our trip we were definitely ready for some down time because prior to this it had pretty much been non-stop sightseeing. After Myanmar we flew to Bali for nearly three weeks (a lot of it unplanned), and we found that we just were not interested in doing the non-stop tourist type of stuff all of the time.

If you have never been to India, I think you will find that it too is pretty much non-stop sightseeing.
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 01:39 PM
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We used Santa Maria for our trip a few years ago. We did find you could get drivers for less than we paid SM. Re Mrauk U, when we started planning in the summer for a Jan/Feb trip, it was open and we included it in our itin. Within a couple months SM advised us we could no longer go & we dropped it form our itin. However once the time came for our trip, it had opened up again, but we decided to skip it.

I have not been to India, my husband has, and I would agree with julies comments above. We do frequently take trips of 6 weeks or longer and also completely agree with julies that at some point we need down time as we just get tired of constantly sightseeing. There is also the overload factor. I find when going to cultures very different from my own, that it is can be very intense, almost overwhelming at times. Having downtime to absorb what I am immersed in is very helpful.
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 04:22 PM
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FWIW I'd put the extra days in. You can spend time at Ngapali beach if Mrauk U is not accessible, or even have more time in Yangon. Downtime is easy to do anywhere (for me at least), but only you know you !
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 04:36 PM
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Have a look at smartraveller.com.au the Australian government travel advisory site. It currently lists Rahkine state as "reconsider your need to travel". At least it's not "do not travel" which voids any insurance you might have.
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 04:45 PM
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I agree with sartoric - add in the extra days, you can always find a way to use those days.
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